Distraught woman jumps off I-290 overpass

A woman is at a hospital this afternoon, in “bad shape” after jumping off an overpass and landing on westbound I-290 near Itasca, according to State Police.

The first responding trooper found the 34-year-old woman, who was able to talk after plunging about 20 feet off the Irving Park bridge just after 3 p.m. just south of Thorndale Avenue, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Bob Huber.

“She said she jumped because she is homeless and she didn’t have much going for her,’’ said Huber.

She was not hit by a car, though a van stopped, thinking the vehicle brushed against her.

The woman she was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove where she is alive but in “bad shape,’’ Huber said.

Traffic was getting by about an hour and a half later on the right two lanes and right shoulder, but the incident also affected motorists on I-355.